Violence

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

June 27, 1994

IS THERE anyone out there whose blood was not chilled by the June 18 report of the Philadelphia youths who stood around laughing and joking as an ice cream man lay dying of a gunshot wound? A murder was committed; a precious human life destroyed; and the stench of that crime rises to the very heavens. But worse than that, those neighborhood children - human children, like yours - did not run for help, or comfort the dying man, or cry, or stare in horror or otherwise behave like human beings. No, they mocked the victim and sang songs celebrating his death, like devils.

My mind reeled at the thought of such an evil act, and at its wider implications. We have finally been so desensitized to real and imaginary violence and other horrors, and our public moral fiber has been so gutted by criticism, mockery and atrocities, that brutality is now nothing more than entertainment for the next generation. I do not know how we can avoid a flood of crack-smoking urban predators, militaristic neo-Nazi bullies, and vicious serial rapists and murderers, when every corner of our children's world echoes with the advice, ''Good is evil, and evil is good.'' I wonder if it isn't already too late.

We have sown the wind, and now we reap the whirlwind. May God have mercy upon us all.